Encore
by ultranaff
Summary: After two years the former companions still haunt each others thoughts.
1. Stray Dog

_Disclaimer: I don't own Samurai Champloo, though Watanabe completely owns me. _

-o-o-o-

In his dreams. Mugen often saw tanager birds.

It took Mugen his whole life to see that loneliness didn't suit him, but it was mainly over the last two years being apart from Fuu and Jin that he fully realised it. He hated those bastards because before he met them, there was never a hole before, only an emptiness. Emptiness he could fully live with, as long as he spent the majority of his mania distracting himself with drinking, fighting, and fucking.

But thanks to flower girl and four eyes, he realised it was way too painful to live alone. And the simple fact was, there were a rare few that could tolerate him, be with him, even like him.

And so, after countless stints in prisons, bloody, battles, and lonely nights wandering aimlessly through the Japanese trails, Mugen realised he couldn't go on. All he needed was to see some familiar faces again.

He sought them out. He traced down Fuu first, as she was not a fugitive Samurai wanted for murder, and therefore easier to track.

His gathered information led him to a busy tavern in Southern Japan where Mugen found the wench working as a waitress. It'd been two years and she had grown into herself. The girl was always a flower that turned men's heads, but her original loveliness had now blossomed into a striking beauty.

He recognised her straight away though, as she still had the same auburn hair that matched the brown of her large doe eyes, peach skin, rosey lips, but now … well, she was thicker, wider, taller, more graceful. Lashes for days. A blinding smile. Long neck, high cheekbones and …. it took Mugen a moment to drink it in. He shook his head.

It was an extremely hot summers day. Fuu was taking a patrons order, she wiped her brow, yet to notice the dark pirate watching her. The tavern owner did though, and approached Mugen with caution.

"Can I help you?" He asked. The tavern owner was plump, with spectacles, and a gentle, yet concerned, expression.

The pirate delivered his trademark menacing glare and the tavern owner stepped back. Mugen was, as ever, an intimidating man. It was that combination of a dark scowl twisted across his features, torn and bloody clothing, tattoos from various prisons, and the huge sword that glinted dangerously behind his back.

"Listen, if you don't have any money-"

"The girl." Mugen interrupted, pointing a finger to her. "I want to talk to her."

The tavern owner frowned, his concerned expression growing. "Sorry, but I don't think I can allow that-"

"I know her."

The tavern owner didn't look convinced. As if a delicate young woman could be acquainted with such a dangerous looking man with a joyless expression.

'Sir, I'm going to have to ask you leave."

"Mugen?"

Among the commotion, Fuu had finally spotted him, frozen in shock with a tray of glasses in one hand, an apron wrapped tight around her thin waist, and her hair twisted in a bun with the ends tousled onto her delicate features. Her big eyes wide and her mouth hanging open, she stared at Mugen as though he were a ghost. A ghost that had come back to life.

"Yo." Mugen greeted softly.

Shakily, she placed her tray down and approached him, and it was clear she was taller too. The smile was still the same though: warm and sweet, and he felt his heart swell at the familiarity of it.

"It's you," she whispered and pulled him into a tight tender hug. Mugen's arms remained at his sides, but he closed his eyes and softened into her embrace. He drank in her scent. Sunflowers.

The tavern keeper raised his brow, still concerned, but he decided to let them be and walked away to tend to his other duties. with a derisive snort.

Close contact was best reserved for sex and fighting, "Alright already, get off of me." Mugen growled. "Jesus christ, you're so damn emotional. You knew you'd see me again, didn't ya?"

Fuu pulled away, though an expression of fondness played on her face. "What are you doing here? How far did you travel? How did you find me?" She paused, looking him up and down. "… are you hungry?"

Mugen nodded lamely. He had travelled on an empty stomach for the last few days on his way to Fuu. He was so fucking hungry, that his stomach felt like it was collapsing into itself.

Without another word, she ushered him into an empty table. "Sit." she demanded, then promptly disappeared into the kitchen, returning within minutes, with plates of steaming noodles, meats, vegetables and dumplings, water, sake, sweets. Mugen salivated.

"Best dishes in the house." She smiled, arranging the food before him. Then she poured out a huge glass of sake and handed it to him.

"Thanks girlie." Mugen nodded, downing the drink in one incredible swallow, and then attacked the food with ravenousness

A few of the staff were throwing nervous glances over at Mugen like he were a wild animal that had wandered into the establishment, but Fuu didn't notice. She just gazed at him as he ate, cheek in palm, still not quite believing he was there. She drank him in.

His cheeks were hollower since two years back. He also had new scars from untreated battle wounds. He had acquired some new prison tattoos. He simply wasn't taking care of himself as he did during the days travelling with Fuu and Jin.

"Mugen…" she said slowly, after he polished off the last plate. "I'm so happy you're here." She laid a small warm hand on his large clammy one and looked at him meaningfully. "I missed you so much."

He looked back at her wordlessly, unsure of what to say. Unsure of how to convey that he missed her too and that he felt empty and incomplete without her.

But he didn't know how.

How could he tell her that the touch of her hand calmed him to his soul. That she was probably the only god damn person in the world to miss him. That during every near death experience her face was always the last thing he saw. That he couldn't stop dreaming of fucking tanager birds. That in the rare instances he passed a sunflower he would stop to smell the damn thing . That he couldn't take it anymore and travelled over twenty miles on an empty stomach and with untreated wounds just to finally see her.

And since he he didn't know how to say all that, he just stayed silent.

"I think it's fate." Fuu continued.

Mugen raised a curious brow. "Fate?"

Fuu gave his hand one last squeeze and pulled away, readjusting her hair bun and smoothing out her apron. "I have an important journey to make." She waited a few moments, looked around cautiously and then lowered her voice. "I've found out that my father… before his death, he left me a will."

Mugen leaned in, and whispered. "The smelly samurai?"

"The sunflower samurai." Fuu punched him softly, with a chuckle. "It's my inheritance. I've been planning to collect it but it's all the way north of the country." She sighed. "I haven't been able to go yet because it seems like a difficult journey. And well, you showing up here out the blue like this-" she paused. "I think it's a sign. I think my father is sending me a message that I have to go."

"Fate eh?" Mugen repeated thoughtfully. He liked the ring to it. He poured another drink and downed it immediately, slamming the empty glass onto the table. "Well then." Mugen stood up, wiping his dirty mouth clean with his sleeve, and revealing a wicked grin. "Sounds like you need a bodyguard

-o-o-o-

Authors Note: Anyone available to betaproof the next few chapters? Would really appreciate a second eye. 


	2. Crows, Flowers, and Monks

In her dreams, Fuu saw crows.

With thick, black, wild feathers and beady eyes blazing ferociously. In the dead of the night she would wake up in a cold sweat, and be met with nothing but empty darkness in the room she occupied beside the tavern.

Even though Fuu's life was now filled with good people and a steady job in the warmth and sunshine of southern Japan, deep down her soul ached to see her former companions again. She yearned for trails and she yearned for wandering.

She yearned for composed stoicism and she yearned for wild brazenness.

As the months turned into years, and her life unfolded into a predictable routine, she was uneasy that perhaps she had lost both of them forever.

But when Mugen appeared in her tavern, with that unchanged wry smile, wild black hair, fierce eyes blazing, her heart thudded as hard as the day he appeared at the entrance of the cove to her final rescue.

It was really him. Standing before her, tall and stoic, real as the day.

"It's you." was all she could say, and he had allowed her to embrace him. Allowed her to put an ear to his beating heart, so she could hear that it was really him. That he was really alive.

Without thinking, Fuu took as much as she could from the kitchen to feed his scrawny body. She just wanted to give him the world and then some, as he had saved her life on countless occasions. Fuu felt like she owed him everything. The owners, albeit concerned, liked her too much to protest.

The pair were walking back to her room, after Mugen had fully indulged himself on endless food and drink. He stumbled a little as he walked, grinning from ear to ear, feeling satisfied and full. Fuu ambled beside him contentedly, and as they shared the silence she felt like no time had passed at all.

That's when he spoke the words she had been waiting to hear all day. "So… I got word on where to find four-eyes."

Fuu's eyes grew wide. She whipped her head over to Mugen. "Where is he?"

Mugen stretched his arms over his head, cracked his back and yawned. "A temple a few hours from here." He said, "Few guys from his old dojo told me that he was hanging out with these Buddhists."

Fuu's expression gleamed with excitement. "Do you think he'd want to come with us all the way to the north?"

"What do I look like to you, a damn psychic?" He shrugged, although he was just as curious himself.

"Lets go to him."

Mugen nodded, not even raising the slightest protest over the additional miles it would add to their already long journey.

Fuu was excited - more excited than she'd felt in years. When they reached her room she hurriedly twisted the lock, and threw the door open, heading straight for the fireplace to spark the logs and warm the room.

Mugen surveyed Fuu's home. It was a simple space with bare walls, and very few belongings. He realised that Fuu had never planned on staying there long.

-o-o-o-

Jin also found himself alone. Though that was no surprise to him. He had always chosen to remove himself from company of others in lieu of focusing on his training.

But after his journey for the sunflower samurai was completed, he felt a dull ache in his heart follow him around for years. Like Mugen, Jin also suddenly found loneliness to be an unbearable discomfort.

His thoughts wandered to them sometimes. He hoped they were healthy, happy, and... alive at least.

That's why it was an incredible mirage on a hot summer day, in the middle of his morning meditation, to see Mugen and Fuu in the distance walking towards his hut.

At first he thought he had conjured the image, but after shaking his head and blinking his eyes a few times he realised they were indeed real.

"Jin!" Fuu shouted, running up to noble Samurai, and throwing her arms around him. Mugen ambled with a slouch behind her, tossing a friendly nod in greeting. "Yo"

Fuu looked lovely. He didn't have words for how much she had grown into a beautiful woman. Mugen looked the same, if anything, a little worse for wear and tear. Jin wondered how he appeared to his former companions.

He straightened up and smiled a small smile, and then bowed. "What a pleasure, Come in, I will make us all tea."

-o-o-o-

"You're training to be a monk?" Mugen burst out laughing. "That's so _lame_."

Fuu patted Jin on the knee with a kind smile. "That would suit you."

The trio sat in Jin's modest hut, sharing a pot of green tea that was warming on the stonefire that burned and crackled between them.

"Are you kiddin' me? What a waste of skill-" Mugen paused, catching himself "-I mean, what a waste of samurai training!"

Jin smiled at Mugen's unintended compliment. "I've experienced much guilt for slaying my master and I believe that following the path of Buddhism is the best way to atone for that." He sipped his tea.

Mugen snorted. "I think you've lost your fuckin mind."

"Ignore him." Fuu said to Jin, "the monks wouldn't allow him into the monastery even if he paid a thousand Ryo."

"Hey!"

"That is true." Jin nodded simply. "And you Fuu? What are your ambitions after you collect your inheritance from your father?"

She fingered the ceramic cup. "I'd like to buy and run a teahouse. I would like it to be a home, for all the travellers and wanderers of Japan to gather in."

Jin smiled "That would certainly suit you."

"Jin." Fuu said slowly, trying to gather the words. "Will you join us on our journey for the north?"

Jin blinked in surprise at the request as Mugen and Fuu looked at him expectantly.

Pausing for a few moments, his thoughts churned visibly, but they were interrupted by a sudden voice that rang from outside the hut.

"Fuu-chan! Sweet Fuu-chan!"

Fuu snapped her head around at the sound of her name, shocked to see through the doorway, a familiar figure bounding up to her in the distance.

It was a young man with tidy brown hair, bright blue eyes, and a determined expression. He also had a sword wrapped around his back.

"H-Hiro?" Fuu gaped, stepping outside. "What are you doing here?"

"Are you kidding me?" When he reached her he bent over breathless. "I had to find you. They tell me you just disappeared, heading west with this, this... wild looking thug covered in prison tattoos!"

On queue, the thug in question emerged from the hut, followed by an equally intimidating Jin.

Hiro scowled, he was smaller in stature than the pair, but his fury was so bright that he instinctively placed a hand on his sword about to draw.

Fuu placed a hand on his, stopping him. "Don't Hiro."

"Don't worry Fuu-chan" Hiro insisted "I will go easy on them."

Mugen burst into wild laughter. Even Jin had to suppress a small amused smile. Fuu shook her head "No, Hiro, these are my _friends_."

Jin stiffened with pride, at the first time ever hearing the term in reference to him. Mugen, on the other hand, picked his ear, not even bothering to address the boy. "What's with the kid?"

"My _name_ is Hiro" he snapped "and I implore you to let me return my dear sweet Fuu-chan back to the village."

"Dear sweet Fuu-chan, eh?"

"She came of her own free will." supplied Jin.

"Hiro please. I need to go find my fathers fortune and now I have protection. It's important for me."

"I could have accompanied you!"

Fuu smiled sadly and shook her head. "I'm sorry Hiro."

"You didn't even say goodbye. I don't understand what's wrong with you. This strange man came and then you left without a second thought." he pointed at Mugen, and Mugen glared at the finger, as though about to snap it two like a twig.

Hiro took Fuu's slender hand, clasping it in his pleadingly. "I love you Fuu. What about us? Don't I mean anything to you?"

Fuu looked down at their entwined palms, her heart pulsing with guilt. Hiro's pain was absorbing her. She had to tell him. "I don't feel the same way Hiro."

"Ooh that's gotta hurt " Mugen grinned while Jin, who was watching the exchange wordlessly had a mixture of slight pity and annoyance etched on his face. To Jin, Hiro's display of emotion was pathetic. Plus, he had reached a decision.

Jin cleared his throat, "Young man." He said impatiently. "If that is all then please excuse us. It's only a few hours before sunset, and I believe Mugen, Fuu and myself have a long journey to make."

-o-o-o-


End file.
